How Ceausescu forced the production of the Oltenian car abandoned by the French. The failure of a billion dollars

Ceausescu was a champion in bad business. They have proven to be the numerous partnerships with the third world states but also the forced industrialization of Romania. The French and the French who placed an old car model, saving from bankruptcy, were used.

Oltcit A model detehnologized passed to Romanians Photo Archive

Nicolae Ceausescu although he was a communist Sadea was a great businessman on the world market. He even played the banker with the third world states. However, the communist dictator was a champion in bad business. He had no place to know the game, he had neither the experience nor the know-how of the capitalist economy. That's how he got to do bad business with banana countries and invest in bankruptcy. Ceausescu borrowed to keep his ghostly projects alive.

“About 19% of the total external credits were used to recover the losses of the enterprises. The economy supports chain locks. With annual losses of about one hundred billion lei“, Says Lavinia Betea in” Ceausescu and his era “. In the automotive industry, Ceausescu was the “perfect naive” for Western partners. They encouraged his illusions and put on his neck licenses of detehnologized car models or slightly performing for the tastes of Western Europe. Instead Ceausescu put huge sums in these outdated models. The story of the Oltcit car is a manual case. Ceausescu managed to rescue from bankruptcy Citroen company spending huge amounts for a company model, thrown at the designer's garbage box.

Ceausescu saved, on the money of the Romanians, the car companies in France

Nicolae Ceausescu wanted his detachment from the Soviet influence, in the field of economy. It has never been successful, because Romania was dependent on the raw materials from the Soviet space. However, Ceausescu wanted to develop the Romanian industry. Including the automotive one. He opted from the beginning for the purchase of licenses from the big Western companies. This is how the Dacia project was born through Renault cooperation. The Dacia 1300 model was acceptable. But it was the demand was high and the small offer. The Romanians were paying at the check and waiting for years to receive their car. Ceausescu then wanted a second car brand to be produced in Romania.

He started discussions with several foreign companies. It was 1973 and the worldwide oil crisis led to an increase in fuel prices affecting the Western industry. The communist leader entered the negotiations with Renault, but also with Volkswagen. Eventually Ceausescu was focused on the bankruptcy of Citroen. The French car company crossed a very difficult time and was about to close the factories. In fact, starting with 1974, it began to be seized by rivals from Peugeot. The savior of the French company was obviously Ceausescu. Especially since the leadership of Citroen, 1975, was Georges Taylor, former CEO of Peugeot, born in Romania in the 20s. This facilitated the proximity between communist Romania and the French cars factory. The communist dictator did not spend much time. He signed the contract and started throwing the state money for a new automotive project.

The business of the century: one billion dollars for an abandoned project

Ştefan Andrei, former foreign minister from the communist period, estimated the investment of the Romanian state in the new project at a billion dollars. A huge sum. In exchange, the Romanians received an abandoned car project by Citroen. The model was detehnologized and too poorly qualitative for the West's automotive requirements. It was about the Prototipe Y model, started by Citroen in collaboration with Fiat. Fiat withdrew from the partnership, Citroen was largely bought by Peugeot, and prototipe y was abandoned.

When Ceausescu appeared with the offer, the French took him out of Naphtalina. “He took the French out of bankruptcy to make a bad and expensive car.”stressed Stefan Andrei, the former foreign minister of communist Romania. On December 30, 1976, the contract for setting up the Romanian-French company is signed. The new car was to be called Oltcit, that is, a kind of “Citroen Oltenc”. The Romanians held 64% of the shares and the French from Citroen the remaining 36%. A heavenly hand for the hexagon company. In 1977 the construction of the factory for the production of the Oltcit car, in Craiova, began.

It had an area of ​​350,000 square meters and the industrial platform stretched on 114 hectares of land. The project of the fanato car was a little modified for the new car to cope with the roads in Romania. The Craiova factory was designed to produce around 130,000 Oltcit cars per year. Obviously, that in most cases, in communism, the capacity of the factory has been overestimated. In reality, in a period of 12 years, only 200,000 Oltcit cars came out on the factory gate. The French took out their money because they exported Oltcit models under the name of Axel. Most cars have arrived in CAER countries, but also in Central Europe as low-cost cars. Around 60,000 pieces were exported.

If for the French this business was quite good, even saving, for the Romanians it was a new economic blunder. That is, they have never recovered their original investment. In 1996, the last Oltcit, under the Oltenian brand, came on the factory gate. One billion dollars for about 200,000 cars, 15 years of production and a car that could not compete with those on the external market. Not to mention the fact that, towards the end of the 80's, the factory directors tried to reduce the costs, that this is how the heads of the party had asked for them, and they resorted to Romanian gearboxes. These were manufactured by a tractor plant. There is no point in talking about consequences. It is certain that Nicolae Ceausescu accused of sabotage on the directors of Oltcit and was about to condemn them to death.

The car preferred by Nicu Ceausescu

Oltcit was a small car, in two doors, with a sports body, more modern than Dacia. Unfortunately, he could not compete with the models of other western brands. For Romanians, the Oltcite was acceptable from some points of view. It had a good consumption for that time, ie between 5.8 and 9.2 percent of kilometers. He had a modern and practical board and the interior although seemingly modest, he was quite spacious for a family with two children. Oltic was produced in four versions. The first was Renault special. It had a 652 cubic centimeters engine. The best known model was Oltcit Club, with a larger engine of 1129 cubic centimeters and a three -speed gearbox.

There was also a sports variant, Oltcit Club 12 RTS, with a 1300 cubic centimeters engine and a 5 -speed gearbox. This model could reach the speed of 165 kilometers per hour. For the communist protestion, special models were made, including one for Nicu Ceausescu who had fallen in love with the Sport model. In general, Oltcit was the favorite of ladies and ladies. Small, maneuverable and flirty, especially if it had the right color.